Exclusive Excerpt and Giveaway: Love By Number by DJ Jamison

Welcome to author DJ Jamison and the Love By Number blog tour! We’re so pleased to share this exclusive excerpt with you as well as the giveaway, so be sure to check out the entry details below.

About the Book

Title: Love By Number
Author: DJ Jamison
Publisher: DJ Jamison
Release Date: October 12, 2017
Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 31,000 words
Genre: Romance, LGBT, m/m contemporary romance
Buy Link: Amazon
Goodreads
Blurb: Aidan doesn’t have the best record with relationships, but he’s had a lifelong love affair with baseball. Player stats and computer simulations make sense. People don’t. But when he needs a ride to the World Series, he must rely on another person: a sexy artist who is as spontaneous as Aidan is predictable.

Jesse doesn’t care about baseball. As an artist, he’d rather paint a player than watch him at bat. But his grandpa loves the Kansas City Royals, so he takes him to every home game. He has no idea a fender bender in the parking lot is about to deliver new inspiration in the shape of a man with a whole bag of quirks.

Despite their differences, Jesse and Aidan hit it off, and their sexual chemistry is fantastic. But when Aidan’s numbers betray him, Jesse isn’t prepared for the fall-out. If Aidan continues to put his passion for baseball stats above everything else, he could miss out on the most important numbers in life: the number of smiles, kisses and laughs they could share in a lifelong journey together.

Exclusive Excerpt

He knew he was a bag of quirks. They’d nearly diagnosed him autistic as a child. He was right on the bordering edge of the spectrum, whatever that meant. Mostly, it meant he didn’t understand people and they didn’t understand him. He felt awkward and uncomfortable around new people, like a pair of shoes not yet broken in and pinching in the toes. And he was particular about his clothing, obviously.

Jesse would feel like soft, comfy cotton. Or maybe slick, slippery silk. Best not to think in that direction. He had no reason to believe Jesse would ever want to share those sorts of sensations with him.

“You like this Jesse?” his mother asked.

“Yeah.”

Aidan didn’t hedge. He was incapable of telling a lie, so his mother knew he had dated men and women both. Neither particularly well. He’d given up on a lasting relationship after his last girlfriend had told him he was the most self-centered person she’d ever met. She was angry after he’d refused a dinner with her parents to go to a baseball game. She didn’t understand what baseball meant to him, but she wasn’t wrong.

Aidan was selfish. His needs came before anyone else’s. He was wired that way, and maybe that was an excuse, but it was also true.

Before Leah, he’d dated Josh. He’d thought he’d finally cracked the relationship equation with him. Josh had been his longest-lasting relationship. All Josh really cared about was sharing a few orgasms. He didn’t want to go on dates or do couple stuff like meet each other’s family. Aidan had been relieved. He could do sex, even if he felt compelled to clean up immediately afterward. But he hadn’t realized Josh wanted only sex. In the end, Josh explained that they’d never been dating at all. It was just casual sex, and not even exclusive. Aidan didn’t like the idea of being used for his body only, even if it was less complicated than doing all the couple stuff.

“Tell me about him?” his mother asked.

Right, Jesse. He was meant to be thinking about his chauffeur to St. Louis, not his failed relationships.

“He smiles right, and his voice is nice. He has color in his hair, and tattoos and piercings. I think he’s an artist of some kind.” She frowned, but before she could object, Aidan hit her with the good stuff. “He takes his grandpa to every home game.”

“Well, that’s sweet, I suppose.” She paused. “What do you mean, smiles right?”

Aidan took a swig of milk, relaxing further into the chair. His mother sounded more curious than worried now. He was a grown man and could do what he wanted, but he liked it better when she didn’t fret.

He put down the glass and wiped his mouth with a napkin before answering. “With his eyes and his mouth both. Like he means it. Or … am I wrong about that?”

His mother smiled right too. She reached out and patted his arm. “No, you’re exactly right.”

Aidan finished his milk, stood up and took it to the sink. He rinsed it out and placed it in the dishwasher. When he turned, his mother watched pensively from the doorway.

“Is Jesse gay?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Why?”

“You said you liked him.”

Aidan sighed. “I didn’t say I wanted to sleep with him.”

She looked skeptical. “You don’t want to sleep with him?”

“I didn’t say that either,” he mumbled.

About the Author

DJ Jamison grew up in the Midwest and worked in newsrooms for more than 10 years before trying her hand at romance writing. Her first m/m romance stories focused on a series of love connections between small-town Kansas newspaper staffers, their sources and their readers before she expanded into novels venturing into emergency rooms and other settings. She lives in Kansas with her husband, two sons and three glow-in-the-dark fish who are miraculously still alive. The same can’t be said for the hamster she got in college. RIP Bogie.